Ruchie Farndon, more affectionately known as Roo, is the founder of Rood Media, a music consulting, promotion, and management company based out of England. Roo’s story feels straight out of a film, taking her from television to music, where she works with an enormous roster of incredibly talented musicians, including her latest project with Noah Slee. And her music credibility is legit – her Spotify station is one of my favorite places to find new artists who I can’t stop listening to. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

When you were 17, what did you want to be?

At 17, I was already doing what I wanted to be doing. My dream job was to be a music video director, combining my love of film with music. So for my first job, my mom knew someone who worked for one of the biggest TV production companies in London, and he got me an internship there when I was 17.

What is the When I Was 17 Project?

When I Was 17 is a blog series dedicated to collecting the varied stories of people's career paths, what they envisioned themselves doing when they were teenagers and how that evolved over the course of their lives. I started this project with the goal of illustrating that it's okay not to know exactly what you want to do when you're 17; many successful people didn't, and these are a few of their stories.